Fake Sorry

But if they confess their iniquity . . . and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. Leviticus 26:40-42

Every time I used drugs, I felt bad, asked God’s forgiveness, and then promised it would be the last time. Only it wasn’t. I must have done that a thousand times. I said I was sorry, I promised change, and then promptly went right back to my toxic behavior. Did God forgive me a thousand times? I’m not entirely sure. When I went to treatment, I saw other guys who were in a similar situation. They’d relapsed countless times, causing tremendous hurt in the lives of those around them. But then they asked God’s forgiveness and suddenly they didn’t have a care in the world. When they left treatment though, many of them promptly returned to the old hurtful behaviors, once again creating chaos in their lives and the lives of those closest to them. So, the question stands – Were they forgiven if they changed nothing? I truly believe they were sorry, and I believe they wanted to be reconciled to God. They did not, however, change one thing about their lives and so, from my perspective, they had not repented.

Today’s passage suggests that restoration to God involves more than just a confession or apology. Restoration and forgiveness must involve some change in behavior. In the verses leading up to the passage, God promised blessings upon his people when they obeyed him and painful discipline when they disobeyed. The purpose of the discipline was to turn his people back to him. So, when they confessed and made amends, God promised to forgive. Returning to God wasn’t as simple as saying, I’m sorry. Returning to God meant a radical change of behavior, abandoning the thing that turned them from God in the first place.

The wonderful promise of the Bible is that God’s forgiveness is unlimited. There’s nothing we can do that moves us beyond his ability to love and forgive us. No matter what we’ve done, we can always find mercy in God. To be forgiven though, requires repentance – a radical change of behavior. If we simply say, I’m sorry, and then go right back to the old behavior, we’ve haven’t changed anything, and we haven’t repented. We can’t then expect that our relationship with God has been made right. We don’t earn God’s love and mercy with good behavior. His love is free. But we can’t expect to continue in our toxic behavior while enjoying the peace and blessing that comes from being reconciled to God.